Over 70 dead in migrant shipwreck off Syria coast

BEIRUT — At least 73 migrants drowned when a boat they boarded in Lebanon sank off Syria's coast, a Lebanese minister said on Friday, the deadliest such shipwreck from Lebanon in recent years.

Around 150 people, mostly Lebanese and Syrians, were on board the small boat that sank on Thursday in the Mediterranean Sea off the Syrian city of Tartus.

"The number of victims from the shipwreck has reached 73 people," Syria's Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabash said in a statement, adding that 20 survivors were being treated in hospital in Tartus.

Of those rescued, five were Lebanese, said Ali Hamie, Lebanon's caretaker transport minister.

"I am discussing with Syria's transport minister a mechanism to retrieve the corpses from Syria," Hamie said, adding search and rescue efforts were ongoing.

Tartus is the southernmost of Syria's main ports, and lies some 50 kilometers north of the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli, where the passengers had initially boarded.

"We are dealing with one of our largest ever rescue operations," said Sleiman Khalil, an official at Syria's transport ministry.

"We are covering a large area that extends along the entire Syrian coast," he added, saying high waves made their work challenging.

Last year Lebanon saw a spike in the number of migrants using its shores to attempt the perilous crossing in overcrowded boats to reach Europe.

In April, the sinking of an overcrowded migrant boat pursued by the Lebanese navy off the northern coast of Tripoli killed dozens of people.

The circumstances of that incident were not entirely clear. Many of the bodies were never recovered.

Agencies via Xinhua